• Footballer hopes to own world’s most expensive camel

• ‘I’ve watched my fair share of races on YouTube,’ he says

It is known as the sport of the sheikhs, with thousands of fans packing desert tracks to watch robot jockeys compete for huge prizes. Now professional camel racing has a new high-profile investor: Paul Pogba.

The Monaco midfielder said he had become a shareholder in the Saudi Arabia-based Al Haboob, the world’s first professional camel racing team competing across the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf, because he wanted to “elevate the sport on to a global stage”.